Carnivale!

This post is going to be extremely long (so grab a cup of coffee and try to bear with me) and very detailed as it contains the events of this past weekend, also known as one of the best weekends I have had here in Italy thus far. Not only did it take place in the number one Italian city that I wanted to visit, but we got to go to Venezia (Venice) during Carnivale, which is like an Italian Mardi Gras, except much more tasteful. But more on that later, my weekend truly begins on wednesday night.
Wednesday: San Valentino
Despite my normal dislike for Valentine's Day, I was pleasantly surprised over my overall good mood and pleasant day. Unfortunately, our professor had cancelled on us for dinner the day before (colleague dinner? I highly doubt it) but we decided to do our valentine's day dinner anyway. And what a dinner we had! Pork chops, rice, chicken, brown sugar carrots, twice baked potatoes, coffee, fruit salad, wine pears, and a chocolate cake from Augusta chocolates :) Just about everyone made something to bring and there were 8 of us at dinner. Meg went all out and even made decorations to hang on the walls and she cut the paper towels into little hearts to use for napkins. Margaux even brought chocolates to decorate the table. We hung out and ate our giant meal for at least 4 hours, pausing only to switch and clean plates, dance around to Nek (our favorite bad italian pop star), and play hackey sack in the living room. It was a great night.Thursday
We had decided the night before that we were going to meet up at Margaux's apartment for lunch to make crepes with nutella and the wine pear sauce from the night before. Upon meeting we found out that our professor had called two of the girls in our group earlier that morning asked if we were rescheduling dinner to that very night (which they had suggested the day before after he backed out of v-day dinner). After a lot of commotion, we decided to eat out at La Cambusa, a good but inexpensive restaurant on the street of one of our academic buildings. A small group of us decided to go (not everyone was going because not everyone has him for a professor) for 8pm and we worked out all the arrangements with him. The dinner was a LOT of fun and we all had a great time- it lasted a good three hours. We learned a lot of random things about Italy that you would only really talk about with actual Italians. I really need to start going to Tandem more (the program where you talk to Italians) since my Italian has improved since we got here. We tried speaking Italian at dinner but ended up speaking in english since we didn't have vocabulary for what we wanted to say. After talking up our cooking skills and the amazing valentines day dinner that he missed, Franceso pretty much asked us to cook him dinner so we're going to organize another dinner again. It was a great start to the weekend that I had been looking forward to for such a long time... going to Venice for Carnivale!
Friday

(first things I saw after getting off the train... I think I screamed-
it's just not possible to take a bad picture of Venice)

Our group of 8 (Me, Jess, Jackie, Margaux, Meg, Kristen, Kate and Alanna- didn't really know the last two) met early at Piazza Italia to catch the bus to the train station. The train to Venice consisted of a train from Perugia to Terentola with a train switch to Florence. Then we switched to the E*Star train (which is the nicer, fancier train) for the train ride to Venice. This was the first time I had ridden on the E*star (besides the one time we rode on it by accident and got a stupid fine) and we had assigned seats. However, no one seems to look at their ticket or have any clue about what an assigned seat is so people were sitting in our seats. After a bit of confusion we finally found some seats and I spent most of the train ride reading Life of Pi (which I finished and was really good) and working on my italian composition for class. Riding the train in to the city was really neat because the tracks went over a bridge and you could see all the islands as you approached the station. Venice, if you don't know, is made up of about 400 islands that are all connected by waterways and canals. A lot of the canals are man made and the public transportation system is known as the Vaporetti, or water buses, which we eventually figured out how to use and enjoy-- but more on that later. After getting off the train we realized that we had no idea how to get to the campsite/hostel where we were booked and decided to call a few other people since a ton of Umbra kids were staying at the same place and had arrived the morning before. After getting directions (we had to take a bus to the airport and then take a bus from there to the campsite) we finally found our way to Campo D'Orba. We checked in and left all our stuff in the cute little cabin. Jackie, Jess, and I shared our cabin which had three little beds and a HUGE bathroom and it was overall very nice for only 16euros a night.

(inside and outside of our cabin)

We left the campsite and took the two buses back to the main area of Venice- our campsite was far off the island because of Carnivale. We were lucky to get a room at all, it was so crowded everywhere- which I noticed immediately on the buses. The Venice buses sucked because they were double buses which are extremely long and I spent most of my time falling on top of people because I couldn't hold on to the bar well enough. However, we finally got back to Venice, Piazza Roma, to be exact, and then decided to try to find dinner and then San Marco (Saint Mark's square). After some pizza we were on our way. And then lost. And then lost again. And again... lost. I had read in the one guidebook, "YOU WILL GET LOST. ACCEPT IT". So we did. Again and again and again. It was ridiculous. Half the time we were following these weird signs up on buildings with strange curvy arrows that didn't lead anywhere. There were even spray painted signs on buildings and those definitely did not lead anywhere. However, after 2 days in the city we could pick out several landmarks (like the donkeys) and could find our way around easier.

(donkeys!)

Our group made it to a few different piazzas complete with crazy stores-- we even found a store that ran on the energy produced by riding a bicycle... probably one of the most random stores I've found in Italy, but also one of my favorites. The store sold a ton of fair trade merchandise and the people were handing out information about a special energy conservation day coming up soon in Italy (possibly in the United States too).. hooray!

(me generating the power for a store)
(masks masks masks!)

We found one particular piazza where there were giant white booths set up selling masks (see above) and capes and costumes. Carnivale is similar to Halloween in the sense that people dress up and even "trick or treat" in a certain sense, however, the mentality and overall mood of the holiday is so very different. Walking around the city you see young and old Italians dressed in the most elaborate and beautiful Renaissance costumes. Full outfits: gloves, boots, dress socks, hats, wigs, etc. Amazing. These people also go to giant balls which cost hundreds of euros... when we were on a vaporetti just taking a ride we saw a giant building that was lit up from the outside with tons of different colors and you could only get to the building by a boat--- inside we could see people twirling and ballroom dancing... it was amazing!
But anyway, back to the story---
The group eventually split up and Jess, Jackie, and I wandered around the city, looking at all the different mask stores and people dressed in costumes. We got lost again trying to find San Marco and ended up walking along the Grand Canal and admiring the buildings and water. The best thing about Venice was getting lost just because everything was new and exciting and beautiful and so different than any of the other Italian cities we had been to. Plus, the decorations for carnivale were crazy! The streets were lit with stars or cobwebs or hearts in giant lights... there was one particular piazza that was easy to remember because it had a GIANT scary looking elf thing that I refused to take a picture of because it scared me too much. It was kind of like the kiddie area, they had a carousel and donkeys!! I think they even had donkey rides... we went up and pet the donkeys and there were little kids trying to give them carratini (carrots) it was so cute!

(star lined paths, man in white wig that we followed to San Marco's)

So after wandering around a bit more we saw this guy dressed to the nines with a white powdered wig (see above) and he was pointing all these confused looking people in one direction so we followed him and lo and behold, found Saint Mark's Square! It was giant and reminded me of Siena's large Campo area... except there was a HUGE stage for carnivale and lights everywhere, even on the mosque, museum, and tower.

(the stage at San Marco)
(lights lights lights!)

There were tons and tons of people gathered around and live music and dancing. The whole weekend was just a giant party. We met up with the other Umbra kids who were dancing and having a grand time. We found out from the kids who had gotten there the night before that there was a gathering of the people with costumes at sunrise that morning on the grand canal. Apparently they stayed up all night and saw them all lined up at sunrise and took pictures... which was probably incredible, but I did get to see a ton of amazing costumes without staying up all night.

(Jackie posing with a Renaissance couple)

The three of us wandered around the square and down the grand canal before we decided to head back (it was a long and tiring day) in time to catch the shuttle to the campsite. A giant group of us left and after getting a little lost, found the way to the bus station area. The camp provided a shuttle but it only ran until 10:30pm and cost more than the bus. However, it was a good deal because we didn't have to switch buses and it took us straight to the campsite-- AND I didn't have to worry about standing and falling over on the bus for 30 minutes.
Everything about that day was fantastic... then at around 3am I get a phone call from my roommate, Alana. "Lisa.. someone broke into our apartment. They took everything". Let me tell you, those are probably some of the scariest words I've heard in a long time. Luckily, my roommates were gone when it happened and everyone was safe. Most of my roommates were actually out of Perugia and only two of them were around for the weekend. Robbers broke in through my other roommate's window which didn't have a bar over it and broke through the shutters (we still have no idea how), broke the glass, and then proceeded to steal as much as they could. They got two laptops, a lot of jewelry, ipods, etc. However, they didn't get anything of mine or my one other roommate's because we hid everything. Thank god. A few weeks ago an apartment had been broken into and the guys lost everything except one boy who hid his laptop and other valuables. Ever since that story I hid mine as well and I am SO lucky that nothing got stolen. However, now being in our apartment is incredibly scary at times. Our landlord has been amazing about the whole thing, he fixed the glass asap, got bars for the window, and even a safe box. He feels terrible about the whole thing... it's just... so scary. It kind of made the rest of the weekend a little more tense for me, but at least none of my things got stolen... so on with the story of the rest of my weekend in Venice!
Saturday
The next morning we woke up early for our big day. The three of us decided to just stay away from the big group just because it was easier to walk around in a smaller group and we knew Venice was going to be mobbed anyway. We headed for the bus stop and got some really good bread, nutella, and cream cheese (cow cheese as we called it- which was kind of gross) for breakfast and caught the bus into Venice. We got lost (surprise surprise) trying to find our way to Saint Mark's again. This time we ended up on a very large street with tons and tons of vendors. It reminded me of the open market in Florence except for the fact that it was so crammed of people that you could barely move.

(if you really want a good idea of how bad it was, click on the picture above)

Basically, you were forced to shop-- and shop we did. I bought tons of gifts on this trip, so everyone get excited! We eventually pushed our way through the crowds (when I say push, I mean literally shoving people out of the way) and found a little bar to have some cappuccino. By this time it was nearly noon, and we had wanted to make it to the square at 11 for the parade. However, we later found out there was actually no real parade and I think we saw plenty of costumes parading around to satisfy our need for an actual parade. After getting directions from the little red riding hood at the bar (he was nice) we found ourselves in Saint Mark's again.. this time with at least 3 times the amount of people that were there the day before.

(San Marco's during the day)

It was insane. Not to mention the stupid birds flying at your head. If there's one thing I hate, it is birds. After pretty much running away, we ducked into the line into the Basilica which I was really excited about because of the very gothic look which was different from all of the other duomos we had seen so far. The rest of the group (who we had actually found in the square) decided to go to Murano Island without us (we were heading there later) and we went into the Basilica. It was absolutely gorgeous-- gold everywhere! We paid a euro to see the golden altarpiece... WOW. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures inside so this is the best I could do.

(inside of the basilica before I realized we weren't allowed to take pictures)

So after seeing the inside of the Basilica we grabbed some pizza (we honestly didn't eat much more than pizza, bread, cookies, and nutella all weekend- hey it saved money!) and then headed toward the vaporetti stop at Saint Mark's. We figured out the boat system (it is SO much easier than the buses in Perugia!!) and decided to get the 24 hour pass because we could use it from that point until the next day. It was the best thing we could possibly have done! We bought our tickets and went into this little platform boxed shape thing to wait for the boat. However, we all thought the platform was actually the boat.. it was on the water and bobbing and had seats so we honestly sat there for a good 20 minutes until I turned to Jackie and asked "when the heck is this boat going to start moving?!" I think at that point some lady looked at me like I was crazy and then the three of us slowly realized we were on the waiting platform... then we felt like idiots and lo and behold a boat came and we got on it and off to Murano island!
I have dreamed about going to Murano island ever since I first saw Dale Chihuly's blown glass. Murano island is the real home of blown glass, it is where all the factories are located because the Italians were afraid that the fire from the factories would burn down the buildings in Venice which were all made of wood at the time. Blown glass is amazing to see done in person, which you can see by free demonstration!

(free demonstration!)

As soon as we got off the boat there were people waiting to tell us to follow them. So we went into this factory and watched a man blow a flower vase and a horse... then we went into their shop. I was so ready to buy a chandelier... honestly. I love Murano glass so much. But I never actually saw anything I loved so I decided to wait. But I did buy some jewlery and gifts of course! :)
We wandered around Murano island going in and out of stores for a good few hours. It was a lot less hectic and much quieter than the crowded mess that was back on Venice. It was also a very beautiful little island and we watched the sun go down over the water. We also ate at a little bar and had really good flat bread (similar to torta al testo, but not quite) sandwiches. We then took the vaporetti back to San Marcos where we wandered around some more, followed random people in sombreros, made friends with jugglers, watched fire breathers/jugglers, and took tons of pictures with people in costumes.

(tower and building lit up with designs)(fire!)

We also randomly took the vaporetti around the island and just got off at whatever stops we felt like. At night, Saint Mark's was lit up with crazy designs and people were dancing to the live music. We also found a group of people drumming down a side street and had fun dancing around there for a little bit. It got late and we decided to head for a bus since our 24 hour pass was good for both the vaporetti and the buses (seriously it was the best deal ever). However, since it was late, the buses only ran to the airport, and the bus to the campsite from the airport had stopped running. We decided to walk from the airport to the campsite (it was not far at all) but it was a little creepy and also along the highway-- don't worry we made it back to the campsite safe!

Sunday
We woke up around the same time and headed back to the main part of Venice, ready to take a vaporetti to Burano island-- where lace is made, or "Lace Island" as I had been calling it. We wanted to use our vaporetti pass as much as we could since we could still use it until 2:30pm. In fact, the day before we had bought our train tickets home since we hadn't bought them going to Venice since we weren't exactly sure when we would be returning. We bought tickets for the 2:32 train and scheduled our day around that.
However, we had no idea it took so freaking long to get to Burano island. I'm talking a good hour. The island was so adorable though and worth the trip, even though we spent a grand total of 20 minutes wandering around before we had to get back on another vaporetti and head to the train station.

(grassy knoll and some laundry...)
(along a canalway on Burano island)

The buildings were all different colors, old women were hanging their laundry in the middle of grassy knolls--- there was actually grass and trees, a change from all the brick, cement, and water canals (not that it's not beautiful, I just like to see a little bit of nature). Another fun thing about taking the vaporetti to Burano was seeing the different islands on the way. My favorite was a random one that we did not stop at. It was a giant brick walled island with trees inside and upon closer inspection, we decided it was a graveyard- we could see crosses and what looked to be gravestones. So this is what the Venetians do with their deceased.. makes sense to me!

(I think this was a giant cemetary floating on the water)

After having a mild panic attack about not making it back to the train station in time we made it with no worries... we took a vaporetti back with a nice woman and her cute little dog and had plenty of time to have a slice of pizza before boarding our train for the 5 hour trip home.
Overall, my weekend in Venice was by far the best. The small group I was in was so much better and easier to deal with than a large one. We had such a fun time seeing all the costumes and masks and the way Italians take such pride in dressing up in their Renaissance outfits. The whole holiday was exciting but also confusing at times. The mess of confetti, broken beer and wine bottles, and general trash began to upset me by Saturday night and I thought of the poor janitorial people that would be cleaning for the next few days. I was also confused about the reasons for this continuous party, as the Americans and other tourists were obviously excited about "drinking to the point of no return" as my food cultures professor would say whereas the Italians were content to literally stroll around the streets in their outfits and stop to pose for our excessive picture taking. Culture differences, eh?
Oh and by the way, since Venice is built on the water and the water levels continue to rise, the entire city has been slowly sinking due to global warming. The water levels are rising and the tides are getting out of control. They're even going to start building water gates to hold back the flow of water (similar to what they are proposing to do in Florida). So if you really like my pictures and think it's a gorgeous city and want to visit, you better do it now before a lot of the city is underwater in the next 30 or 40 years. Just a heads up.
Returning home to Perugia was weird especially after being robbed. I'm glad we bought our tickets when we did too because the other people in our group left later, missed a train and got stuck in Bologna... I was worried about them but they made it home safe around Monday afternoon... I am so happy with our early decision making (I owe my planning skills to my mom.. thanks mom!)
Now the weekend and constant party atmosphere seems to be so far away with midterms approaching... Carnivale itself is over tomorrow (it lasted for quite some time) with Fat Tuesday. No more confetti in all the streets. No more costumes, no more celebrations. Ash Wednesday is this week as well-- perhaps I will make it to church, but probably not. This friday I have my food cultures trip which I am SO EXCITED for. We go to the Tuscan countryside and do wine (not so excited) and cheese tastings and then learn how to make all kinds of food and have an 8 course, 4 hour meal. Apparently it's amazing :)
I know this entry was long, but this weekend was so incredible I wanted to document as much as possible. I know that I barely convered it and that I couldn't put as many pictures on as possible but just check my yahoo account for the rest. Thanks for reading through all of this (just take it a day at a time that's how I wrote it at least... oy) and I miss all of you so much!
Ciao!!!